72 Bible Verses on Listening

The Bible has a lot to say about listening and hearing. What we do with our ears matters to God, and it should! He cares about us and loves us, and if we hope to spend our lives becoming more like Jesus and glorifying God, we need to be good listeners. In fact, if we aren’t good listeners, we may miss out on hearing God speak to us. Here are some Bible verses about listening:

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What Does the Bible Say About Listening?

Old Testament

Genesis 26:4–5
I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Exodus 15:26
If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.

Exodus 20:19
and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’

Deuteronomy 13:4
You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him.

Psalm 5:3
O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

Psalm 18:6
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.

Psalm 34:4
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.

Psalm 34:6
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.

Psalm 34:15
The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.

Psalm 116:1–2
I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

Psalm 130:1–2
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

Proverbs 1:33
but whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.

Proverbs 4:20–21
My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.

Proverbs 6:20
My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching.

Proverbs 10:8
The wise of heart will receive commandments,
but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

Proverbs 10:17
Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life,
but he who rejects reproof leads others astray.

Proverbs 12:1
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
but he who hates reproof is stupid.

Proverbs 12:15
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes,
but a wise man listens to advice.

Proverbs 13:1
A wise son hears his father’s instruction,
but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

Proverbs 16:20
Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,
and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord.

Proverbs 18:13
If one gives an answer before he hears,
it is his folly and shame.

Proverbs 18:15
An intelligent heart acquires knowledge,
and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

Proverbs 19:20
Listen to advice and accept instruction,
that you may gain wisdom in the future.

Proverbs 19:27
Cease to hear instruction, my son,
and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

Proverbs 20:12
The hearing ear and the seeing eye,
the LORD has made them both.

Proverbs 21:23
Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue
keeps himself out of trouble.

Proverbs 25:12
Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold
is a wise reprover to a listening ear.

Isaiah 65:1
I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’
to a nation that was not called by my name.

Jeremiah 7:13
And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,

Jeremiah 26:3–6
It may be they will listen, and every one turn from his evil way, that I may relent of the disaster that I intend to do to them because of their evil deeds. You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.’

Jeremiah 29:12
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.

Jeremiah 33:3
Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Micah 1:2
Hear, you peoples, all of you;
pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it,
and let the Lord GOD be a witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.

Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation;
my God will hear me.

Zechariah 1:4
Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord.

Zechariah 10:6
I will strengthen the house of Judah,
and I will save the house of Joseph.
I will bring them back because I have compassion on them,
and they shall be as though I had not rejected them,
for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them.

Malachi 2:2
If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.

New Testament

Matthew 4:4
But he answered, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’’

Matthew 7:24
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

Matthew 11:15
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Matthew 17:5
He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘
This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.’

Matthew 18:15
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.

Mark 4:9
And he said, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’

Mark 4:24
And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.’

Mark 9:7
And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son; listen to him.’

Luke 8:21
But he answered them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’

Luke 10:16
The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.

Luke 11:28
But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’

Luke 12:3
Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

John 8:47
Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.

John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

Acts 16:14
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

Acts 16:25
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

Romans 10:17
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Galatians 3:5
Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

Philippians 4:9
What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

1 Thessalonians 2:13
And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

James 1:19
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

James 1:22
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

James 1:25
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

1 Peter 3:12
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

1 John 2:24
Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

1 John 5:14–15
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Revelation 3:20
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.